Postwar American Avant-Garde Art (Μεταπολεμική Αμερικανική Πρωτοπορία)
Stamatina Dimakopoulou
Much experimental and avant-garde art in the US from the late 1950s onwards emerged against the backdrop of an intense questioning of the modernist canon, and responded to wider historical shifts that involved the dissolution, and the redefinition of boundaries in diverse and interconnected areas of cultural and social life. The course maps important strands in the post-WWII avant-garde from the late 1950s to the present day. The reaction against Abstract Expressionism, the emergence of happenings in the late 1950s, will constitute the point of departure for an examination of the work of artists who experimented with diverse forms, practices, and media, moved beyond traditional genres, and challenged the boundaries, and the institutions that had defined the production of art. We will work with a variety of sources and documents, including poems, paintings, films, performances, videos, and artists’ writings. Throughout the course, we will be establishing connections between artistic movements and developments in postwar American poetry. Teaching consists in lectures, as well as seminar activities and discussions developing connections across different themes and artistic forms. Course material and bibliography can be accessed online on the e-class site. Depending on attendance and participation, additional seminar sessions may be organised during term-time.
Τη δεκαετία του ’50 εμφανίζονται στην Αμερική νέες ριζοσπαστικές πρωτοπορίες οι οποίες αμφισβητούν την παράδοση του μοντερνισμού και ασκούν έντονη κριτική στην ιδεολογία του Ψυχρού Πολέμου. Κοινό γνώρισμα των κινημάτων αυτών είναι πειραματισμοί που καταλύουν τα όρια ανάμεσα σε διακριτές μορφές έκφρασης, καθώς οι καλλιτέχνες ανταποκρίνονται στην ανάδυση και ενδυνάμωση των κοινωνικών κινημάτων τα οποία κυρίως τη δεκαετία του ’60, διεκδικούν την ελευθερία του προσδιορισμού συλλογικών και ατομικών ταυτοτήτων. Με αφετηρία την πρωτοπορία του Black Mountain College και την εμφάνιση των happenings και της pop art στο τέλος της δεκαετίας του ’50, θα μελετήσουμε κινήματα και καλλιτέχνες που πειραματίζονται τις επόμενες δεκαετίες με νέες πρακτικές και μορφές έκφρασης, όπως η εννοιολογική τέχνη, το βίντεο, η performance και το σινεμά, οι πειραματισμοί των τελευταίων δεκαετιών σε συνάρτηση με την πολιτική των ταυτοτήτων.
LessMuch experimental and avant-garde art in the US from the late 1950s onwards emerged against the backdrop of an intense questioning of the modernist canon, and responded to wider historical shifts that involved the dissolution, and the redefinition of boundaries in diverse and interconnected areas of cultural and social life. The course maps important strands in the post-WWII avant-garde from the late 1950s to the present day. The reaction against Abstract Expressionism, the emergence of happenings in the late 1950s, will constitute the point of departure for an examination of the work of artists who experimented with diverse forms, practices, and media, moved beyond traditional genres, and challenged the boundaries, and the institutions that had defined the production of art. We will work with a variety of sources and documents, including poems, paintings, films, performances, videos, and artists’ writings. Throughout the course, we will be establishing connections between artistic mov
Much experimental and avant-garde art in the US from the late 1950s onwards emerged against the backdrop of an intense questioning of the modernist canon, and responded to wider historical shifts that involved the dissolution, and the redefinition of boundaries in diverse and interconnected areas of cultural and social life. The course maps important strands in the post-WWII avant-garde from the late 1950s to the present day. The reaction against Abstract Expressionism, the emergence of happenings in the late 1950s, will constitute the point of departure for an examination of the work of artists who experimented with diverse forms, practices, and media, moved beyond traditional genres, and challenged the boundaries, and the institutions that had defined the production of art. We will work with a variety of sources and documents, including poems, paintings, films, performances, videos, and artists’ writings. Throughout the course, we will be establishing connections between artistic mov
Syllabus
Course Syllabus
Week 1
General Introduction to the postwar period [Overview and Aims]
Week 2
Beyond Abstract Expressionism: happenings and the “blurring of art and life”
Seminar Material
Allan Kaprow, “How to Make a Happening” (LP record 1965), [transcript and sound on ubu.com]
“The Happenings Are Dead: Long Live the Happenings!” (1966) [pdf file on the eclass], “Some Recent Happenings” (1966), [on ubu.com], “Art Which Can’t Be Art” (1986)
Week 3
Pop art: breaking down the boundaries between high and low
Seminar Material
Claes Oldenburg, “Store Days” (1967), Andy Warhol, “Work” in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B and Back Again (1975) [pdf files on the eclass], Robert Rauschenberg, “Monogram, Free Standing Combine (1955-59), James Rosenquist, “President Elect” (1961-2), Andy Warhol, “Marilyn Diptych” 1962
Week 4
Conceptual art and the critique of the institution of art
Seminar Material
Joseph Kosuth, Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) (1966), Art After Philosophy (1969), Mel Bochner, Language is not Transparent (1970), Theory of Boundaries (1969-70), Sol Le Witt, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” (1967), Dan Graham, “Poem, March 1966 / Dan Graham” (1967) [on ubu.com]
Week 5
Feminism and the (en)gendering of postmodernism: power, difference, and the politics of meaning
Seminar Material
[overview] Linda Nochlin ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (1971) [pdf file on the eclass], Mary Beth Edelson, Some Living American Women Artists/Last Supper (1971), Martha Rosler, “Semiotics of the Kitchen” (1975), “The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems” (1974-1975), “Domination and the Everyday” (1975)
Week 6
MID TERM I
Week 7
“There is no such thing as art for art's sake”: The Black Arts Movement and Beyond
Seminar Material
Amiri Baraka, “Black Dada Nihilismus” (1964), “Black Art” (1966), Faith Ringgold, The Flag is Bleeding’(1967), Betye Saar, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemina”(1972), “Victory of Gentleness (For Rosa Parks) (1975), Nikki Giovanni, “Nikki-Rosa” (1968), Adrian Piper, The Mythic Being: I/Your (Her) 1974
Week 8
Earthworks, Video, Performance
Seminar Material
Robert Smithson, “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic- New Jersey” (1967) [pdf file on the eclass], and [selections from William Carlos Williams’s Patterson (1946-51), Gordon Matta-Clark, “Fresh Kill” (1972), Vito Acconci, “Three Adaptation Studies” (1970), Joan Jonas, “Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy” (1972)
Week 9
“We the mestizas and mestizos, will remain”: Chicano/a Art and Poetry
Seminar Material
John Valadez, Getting Them Out of the Car (1984), Judy Baca, Dead Homeboy Killed by a Placa (1974)
Yolanda López, Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe (1978), Alma Villanueva, “Of Utterances” (1978)
Week 10
Beyond “survivance”: Native American Art
Seminar Material
Gerald Vizenor’s “Survivance,” Jaune Quick to-See Smith, Indian, Indio, Indingeouns (1992) Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People) (1992), Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, from Portraits against Amnesia (c2000)
Week 11 Student Presentations
Week 12 Mid-TERM 2 –Submission of Research Paper
Instructors
Stamatina Dimakopoulou (MA, PhDLon) is a lecturer in American literature and culture, and her research to date focuses on the American dialogue with the continental avant-gardes in the 20th century. Publications include articles on John Ashbery, Max Ernst, and Joseph Cornell. She has contributed chapters to Revues modernistes anglo-americaines : lieux d'echange, lieux d'exil and the forthcoming Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines; current research projects include work on artists’ and poets’ theory in America. She is co-editor of Synthesis (http://synthesis.enl.uoa.gr/), a new interdisciplinary journal of literature and culture.
H Σταματίνα Δημακοπούλου (MA, PhD Lon) είναι Λέκτορας Αμερικανικής λογοτεχνίας και πολιτισμού. Τα ερευνητικά της ενδιαφέροντα αφορούν στον Αμερικανικό διάλογο με τις ευρωπαϊκές πρωτοπορίες στον 20ο αιώνα, καθώς και τη διαμόρφωση του Αμερικανικού μοντερνισμού και μεταμοντερνισμού στην ποίηση, στην τέχνη και στην κριτική. Οι δημοσιεύσεις της περιλαμβάνουν άρθρα για τον John Ashbery, τον Joseph Cornell και τις πρωτοποριακές περιοδικές εκδόσεις την περίοδο του μοντερνισμού. Η τρέχουσα έρευνά της αφορά στις σχέσεις εικαστικών τεχνών και ποίησης στην Αμερική. Από το 2008, είναι συντάκτρια του διεπιστημονικού περιοδικού Synthesis (http://synthesis.enl.uoa.gr/).
Copyright Notes
For the course material the following notes apply.
Note on History of Published Version
The present work is the edition 1.0.
Reference Note
Copyright National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Stamatina Dimakopoulou 2015. Stamatina Dimakopoulou. “Postwar American Avant-Garde Art (Μεταπολεμική Αμερικανική Πρωτοπορία)”. Edition: 1.0. Athens 2015. Available at: http://opencourses.uoa.gr/courses/ENL9.
Licensing Note
The current material is available under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license or later International Edition. The individual works of third parties are excluded, e.g. photographs, diagrams etc. They are contained therein and covered under their conditions of use in the section «Use of Third Parties Work Note».
[1] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
As Non-Commercial is defined the use that:
- Does not involve direct or indirect financial benefits from the use of the work for the distributor of the work and the license holder.
- Does not include financial transaction as a condition for the use or access to the work.
- Does not confer to the distributor and license holder of the work indirect financial benefit (e.g. advertisements) from the viewing of the work on website.
The copyright holder may give to the license holder a separate license to use the work for commercial use, if requested.
Preservation Notices
Any reproduction or adaptation of the material should include:
- the Reference Note,
- the Licensing Note,
- the declaration of Notices Preservation,
- the Use of Third Parties Work Note (if available),
together with the accompanied URLs.
Week 1
General Introduction to the postwar period [Overview and Aims]
Week 2
Beyond Abstract Expressionism: happenings and the “blurring of art and life”
Seminar Material
Allan Kaprow, “How to Make a Happening” (LP record 1965), [transcript and sound on ubu.com]
“The Happenings Are Dead: Long Live the Happenings!” (1966) [pdf file on the eclass], “Some Recent Happenings” (1966), [on ubu.com], “Art Which Can’t Be Art” (1986)
Week 3
Pop art: breaking down the boundaries between high and low
Seminar Material
Claes Oldenburg, “Store Days” (1967), Andy Warhol, “Work” in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B and Back Again (1975) [pdf files on the eclass], Robert Rauschenberg, “Monogram, Free Standing Combine (1955-59), James Rosenquist, “President Elect” (1961-2), Andy Warhol, “Marilyn Diptych” 1962
Week 4
Conceptual art and the critique of the institution of art
Seminar Material
Joseph Kosuth, Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) (1966), Art After Philosophy (1969), Mel Bochner, Language is not Transparent (1970), Theory of Boundaries (1969-70), Sol Le Witt, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” (1967), Dan Graham, “Poem, March 1966 / Dan Graham” (1967) [on ubu.com]
Week 5
Feminism and the (en)gendering of postmodernism: power, difference, and the politics of meaning
Seminar Material
[overview] Linda Nochlin ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (1971) [pdf file on the eclass], Mary Beth Edelson, Some Living American Women Artists/Last Supper (1971), Martha Rosler, “Semiotics of the Kitchen” (1975), “The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems” (1974-1975), “Domination and the Everyday” (1975)
Week 6
MID TERM I
Week 7
“There is no such thing as art for art's sake”: The Black Arts Movement and Beyond
Seminar Material
Amiri Baraka, “Black Dada Nihilismus” (1964), “Black Art” (1966), Faith Ringgold, The Flag is Bleeding’(1967), Betye Saar, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemina”(1972), “Victory of Gentleness (For Rosa Parks) (1975), Nikki Giovanni, “Nikki-Rosa” (1968), Adrian Piper, The Mythic Being: I/Your (Her) 1974
Week 8
Earthworks, Video, Performance
Seminar Material
Robert Smithson, “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic- New Jersey” (1967) [pdf file on the eclass], and [selections from William Carlos Williams’s Patterson (1946-51), Gordon Matta-Clark, “Fresh Kill” (1972), Vito Acconci, “Three Adaptation Studies” (1970), Joan Jonas, “Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy” (1972)
Week 9
“We the mestizas and mestizos, will remain”: Chicano/a Art and Poetry
Seminar Material
John Valadez, Getting Them Out of the Car (1984), Judy Baca, Dead Homeboy Killed by a Placa (1974)
Yolanda López, Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe (1978), Alma Villanueva, “Of Utterances” (1978)
Week 10
Beyond “survivance”: Native American Art
Seminar Material
Gerald Vizenor’s “Survivance,” Jaune Quick to-See Smith, Indian, Indio, Indingeouns (1992) Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People) (1992), Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, from Portraits against Amnesia (c2000)
Week 11 Student Presentations
Week 12 Mid-TERM 2 –Submission of Research Paper
Stamatina Dimakopoulou (MA, PhDLon) is a lecturer in American literature and culture, and her research to date focuses on the American dialogue with the continental avant-gardes in the 20th century. Publications include articles on John Ashbery, Max Ernst, and Joseph Cornell. She has contributed chapters to Revues modernistes anglo-americaines : lieux d'echange, lieux d'exil and the forthcoming Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines; current research projects include work on artists’ and poets’ theory in America. She is co-editor of Synthesis (http://synthesis.enl.uoa.gr/), a new interdisciplinary journal of literature and culture.
H Σταματίνα Δημακοπούλου (MA, PhD Lon) είναι Λέκτορας Αμερικανικής λογοτεχνίας και πολιτισμού. Τα ερευνητικά της ενδιαφέροντα αφορούν στον Αμερικανικό διάλογο με τις ευρωπαϊκές πρωτοπορίες στον 20ο αιώνα, καθώς και τη διαμόρφωση του Αμερικανικού μοντερνισμού και μεταμοντερνισμού στην ποίηση, στην τέχνη και στην κριτική. Οι δημοσιεύσεις της περιλαμβάνουν άρθρα για τον John Ashbery, τον Joseph Cornell και τις πρωτοποριακές περιοδικές εκδόσεις την περίοδο του μοντερνισμού. Η τρέχουσα έρευνά της αφορά στις σχέσεις εικαστικών τεχνών και ποίησης στην Αμερική. Από το 2008, είναι συντάκτρια του διεπιστημονικού περιοδικού Synthesis (http://synthesis.enl.uoa.gr/).
For the course material the following notes apply.
Note on History of Published Version
The present work is the edition 1.0.
Reference Note
Copyright National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Stamatina Dimakopoulou 2015. Stamatina Dimakopoulou. “Postwar American Avant-Garde Art (Μεταπολεμική Αμερικανική Πρωτοπορία)”. Edition: 1.0. Athens 2015. Available at: http://opencourses.uoa.gr/courses/ENL9.
Licensing Note
The current material is available under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license or later International Edition. The individual works of third parties are excluded, e.g. photographs, diagrams etc. They are contained therein and covered under their conditions of use in the section «Use of Third Parties Work Note».
[1] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
As Non-Commercial is defined the use that:
- Does not involve direct or indirect financial benefits from the use of the work for the distributor of the work and the license holder.
- Does not include financial transaction as a condition for the use or access to the work.
- Does not confer to the distributor and license holder of the work indirect financial benefit (e.g. advertisements) from the viewing of the work on website.
The copyright holder may give to the license holder a separate license to use the work for commercial use, if requested.
Preservation Notices
Any reproduction or adaptation of the material should include:
- the Reference Note,
- the Licensing Note,
- the declaration of Notices Preservation,
- the Use of Third Parties Work Note (if available),
together with the accompanied URLs.
General Introduction to the postwar period [Overview and Aims]
Beyond Abstract Expressionism: happenings and the “blurring of art and life”
Pop art: breaking down the boundaries between high and low
Conceptual art and the critique of the institution of art
Feminism and the (en)gendering of postmodernism: power, difference, and the politics of meaning
Mid-TERM 1
Earthworks, Video, Performance
“We the mestizas and mestizos, will remain”: Chicano/a Art
Beyond “survivance”: Native American Art
There is no such thing as art for art's sake”: The Black Arts Movement and Beyond
Week 11: Student Presentations
Week 12: Mid-TERM 2 –Submission of Research Paper
Open Academic Course
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